[Airband Frequency] The RTL-SDR is a small USB dongle that plugs into your PC and picks up various signals from around you. The company that produces the dongle states the following about: it it's an ultra cheap software defined radio it can be used as a wideband radio scanner it may interest ham radio enthusiasts hardware hackers, tinkerers and anyone interested in radio frequency. at $40 USD I took the plunge and I bought it and spent a week with it and in this video we will cover the basics and how to get started It's surprisingly easy but there's so much information about it that it can scare people away So I have organized it in a simple easy to digest manner for everyone to understand there will be detailed timestamps if you want you can skip to your desired part and if you skip you will find what you're looking for without needing to watch the entire video however If you're new... I would highly recommend that you watch the whole video Let's go! [Intro Video] So who is RTL-SDR? well it's not a company in the regular sense think of it like a large group project On their website this is how they identify themselves: No person or company owns RTL-SDR and it's all supported software and hardware in its entirety However it was the combined efforts of Mr. Antti Palosaari Mr. Eric Fry and Mr. Osmocom in particular Mr. Steve Markgraf who first discovered that certain TV dongles could be used for SDR Osmocom in particular developed the first RTL-SDR driver which was released as an open-source. [Understanding Radio] Let's quickly understand how radio works as it will make using the device and software a breeze! You might have heard of AM and FM they're both similar meaning you can tune into an AM signal using an FM receiver the quality might be bad but it can be done This means they're interchangeable to a degree to put it simply we were only introduced to a small part of radio signals for commercial reasons all radio signals whether it's commercial radio channels weather forecast, aviation communication and even marine and army signals can all be picked up by a single device if it's capable enough. All these signals follow two rules Frequency and Wavelength that's why in classic radios from the past you can find two dials or knobs to adjust them. However those radios were limited in that they can only pick up AM and FM signals typically from 88 to 108 MHz but the frequency line is much bigger and there are other types of signals but why these complications? why not just have one device for all signals? The answer is simple "Clarity" and "Range" Normal radio stations use FM because it's condensed and clear but travel short distances but they can recover from the short distance limitation by building "Signal Boosters" Signal boosters will work with with Aviation services to an extent, but it cannot be done in Marine so you need a signal that can travel longer which is VHF or very high frequency but in order to do that you need to compromise on quality Old radio simplified it for us by only introducing AM and FM AM travel longer, FM had better clarity hence you can see more FM channels than AM. This graph will help you understand the line I'm speaking of a little bit better with SDR the line is a lot bigger and covers more variety of signals and range If you have the right equipment in the SDR interface, signals have headers or some kind of notes to help you understand who uses that type of frequency so it'll all make sense once you start using it. [Where To Buy It?] Where to buy it Now with that out of the way let's get to the fun stuff The buying process is fairly easy for everyone with almost no exceptions. I bought mine from AliExpress and the delivery took about 9 days it's also available on Amazon, eBay and crowdssupply.com the main thing you should look for is buying an original RTL-SDR as there are so many copycats and the company that produces them makes a good effort in warning the buyers I will leave a link in the description for all three major platforms with original devices. [SDR Sharp] Which software to use? There are so many but the one I'm using and the one that RTL-SDR recommends is "SDR Sharp" which is a free to download and use 3rd party software The software itself does not require admin rights it can be installed for lack of a better term within the folder otherwise known as standalone
software and does not get rooted to your program file in your desktop which is good if you're using a company laptop just be careful not to violate any policies [Its a joke :)] In the description I will leave a link to an android app version as well that can be used to achieve the same results. It's a great companion to have for a quick on-the-go setup and ease of use but it lacks features that you can find in the SDR sharp desktop version and can be frustrating to you sometimes. It's also not free and will require a purchase to get all the features [Installing SDR Sharp] How to install? Installation can be done in less than 5 minutes From your desktop all you have to do is the following: Okay, so what you want to do is you want to go to airspy.com/downloads Once you see this page you want to click on the first option that says here download and then what you want to do next you want to have it in a folder in a designated folder
where you can easily access it Extract it Once you extract it just enter the folder and do the following: You want to click on "install-rtlsdr" You're going to see this window here just click "More info" and "Run Anyway" Then you're going to see this command window it's going to go through it's going to scroll through a few things and then it will give you this message just click "Press To Continue" and then once you do that you want to go to you'll see that this file actually originally was not here and only... and was only created once we did the installation so what you want to do you want to click it click "yes" and then here... you can see that the list is empty so now now you want to plug in your device as you can see I plugged mine and it says one device device found but... you click on "options" and you click "list all devices" and then from this list it may vary, depending on your... setup or the the number of devices you have obviously I have a lot so you're seeing a lot the one you want to pick is this one "bulk-in interface (interface 0)" and then it says "re-install drivers" if you're doing it for the first time it will say "install drivers" so I'm going to do it anyways so we'll click "re-install" usually takes about, from my experience about a minute alright so you can see here now it
says "the driver was installed successfully" you click "close" close this window, now it's time to open it So we're going to open it here, SDRSharp and then this is what it looks like so first thing you want to do is you want to go to... click on this option here the three lines and then click on "source" and then click on "RTL-SDR USB" it's not going to play by itself once you click it you need still need to click the "start" button once you click the start you can start hearing the broadcast [Radio Signal Sound] so that's how you install it now I will just show you a few quick settings that are useful make sure that you go to "layout" and then on the "zoom bar" you select it you will see that it's now you have the option of zooming in on the signal or... basically controlling... the layout or... you know it helps you to narrow down a good signal [How To Use On Your Phone] Alright, so what you want to do is you want to go to the "Play Store" type "SDR Touch" and you will find 3 options you want to click the one that
says "SDR touch" to go ahead and install it once that is done you open it up and you click "ok" and at this point you want to plug your device using the OTG you click the "start" button but on the top and you will see this message it's basically telling you there are missing drivers all you have to do is just click "ok" and it will take you to the "Play Store" you click "install" once it's installed you unplug the device and then you plug it back again it will say "Open RTL"
just click "Ok" and it should start right up [Radio Signal Sound] and that's it now the spectrum the one on the top right here is a paid feature meaning if you're using the free version you can only use it for a certain period of time I believe it's about 1 minute or so so once that is done it just it'll continue working so you can continue receiving signal but you won't be able to see the spectrum [Build & Features] Physical features when you buy the RTL-SDR it comes in, with everything you need to get started the device itself is made out of
metal and has a USB interface on one end and SMA port on the other if you find yourself liking it you can improve it later by buying accessories while using it it's normal for the device to get hot the metal enclosure works as a heat dissipation or a heat sink so don't worry [Signal Strength] Signal strength from my home which is located about 17 KM (10.5 Miles) from the nearest airport I was able to pick up the following signals the normal FM and AM radio stations or channels with high clarity and without doing anything special just plug the dongle turn on the software and tune in the desired frequency
and start listening. I was also able to pick up random walkie-talkie signals some were clear and some were encrypted we will talk about the encryption at a later part I also picked up an automated aviation signal that broadcasts Runway and Weather Information and sounded
like this: 0, 1, 0, 0, ILS, approach, Runway, 3, 0, in use taxi way bravo one foreclosed metro port
wind touchdown zone 1, 1, 0°, 5 knots visibility 3,500 Meters pace cloud, no significant
clouds, temperature 1,8, 2.15, Q, N, H, 1. I also managed to pick up aviation signals between planes and traffic control towers but the signal was poor and unreliable and the quality was bad even when the quality was good it was only for a short period the signals you heard at the beginning of the video were only possible when I was near the airport roughly 2 to 5 km (1.24 to 3.1Miles)
away all these signals were picked up using the provided kit without any modification in theory, you can improve your signal scanning and quality by having a better antenna but for the average person you can achieve the same results you see in this video without spending any additional
money on top of the $40 that costs to buy the device [Encrypted Signals] Encrypted signals Now, this is an advanced subject but it's good to know the basics at least so when you run into one you will know that it's intended to be that way and not think that your signal is
poor encrypted signals are used for secure communication and they sound like a broken
or poor signal but have almost no background noise they can be decrypted using certain
software which you can find videos on on YouTube. [Signals You Can Pick Up] What can you pick up with it well, besides commercial radio stations Aviation signals Weather Forecast you can also pick up walkie-talkie signals Marine signals which I'm yet to try and almost any signal you can think of just a quick note on the weather forecast channels they're not available in every country and is mostly government-owned stations to broadcast weather information and warn against natural disasters so don't be disappointed if you can't find one. [Is It Legal?] Legality Now this is a subject depending
on your geolocation common sense says that it's perfectly legal as your only receiving and not sending any signals and the burden of protecting the signals falls on those who transmits the signal in the first place but I would strongly recommend checking your laws to make sure you're not breaking any. [Conclusion] I absolutely loved spending time with it It certainly brough back old memories and it's a fun little project I'm intending to use it as radio on my desk as it adds a nice retro look and it makes me look smart (Sarcasm) This is it if this video helped you get started I would absolutely love to hear about your experience and if you're running into any issues I would love to help if I can this video was produced after testing and spending about one week only so if you're an expert on the subject and want to correct anything that I said in the video that's not correct, feel free to do so If you last it this long thank you so much for watching and I'll catch you in the next video [Outro Music]
